EU court strikes down Iran nuclear sanctions

LUXEMBOURG/TEHRAN - One of the European Union's top courts annulled Friday an EU asset freeze imposed on seven Iranian banks and other companies for their alleged involvement in the country's contested nuclear programme.

The Tribunal meanwhile rejected an appeal by Bank Melli Iran against its sanctions, agreeing with the EU that its role in funding research by Iran's atomic energy organisation constituted support for Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only but the West, led by the United States, suspects it is meant to produce atomic weapons.

Accordingly, the United States, EU and the UN Security Council have imposed a series of sanctions on Iran which have begun to hit the economy hard.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday Iran wants to allay concerns over its nuclear programme, suspected of hiding efforts to build an atomic bomb, and resolve the impasse with world powers.

Perhaps most significantly, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, said separately Tehran could conceivably agree to allowing the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to conduct snap inspections of its facilities.

Western countries and Israel suspect that Tehran's nuclear programme is cover for a weapons drive, a charge Iran strongly denies.

Friday's remarks came as Iran's new president, Hassan Rowhani, has expressed keenness to move forward quickly with serious, transparent negotiations, while not abandoning the country's rights.

Zarif, a moderate whose ministry Rowhani tasked Thursday to spearhead talks, said "there are two principles in the nuclear domain - first and foremost, respect for our rights in matters of nuclear technology, especially the enrichment of uranium. "Following that is to allay international concerns" on the programme.

Zarif spoke after receiving a telephone call from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, chief negotiator for the P5+1 - the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany - who have been pressing Iran to stop enriching uranium.

That process, which Iran insists is purely for peaceful purposes, can lead in a more refined form to produce the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.

"Allaying international concerns is in our interest because atomic weapons do not form part of the Islamic republic's policies," Zarif said. "Consequently, our interest is to remove any ambiguity regarding our country's nuclear programme." "I told Mrs Ashton that if there is a political will to resolve this matter, particularly regarding Iran's nuclear rights, we are equally ready to move forward," he said.

Earlier, speaking in Vilnius, Ashton said she had told Zarif "I stand ready with my colleagues to get the talks moving," adding that she hoped to meet him in New York during the UN General Assembly later this month.

Asked whether she expected Zarif to lead the nuclear talks, she said: "I don't know who my interlocutor will be." "I hope we will set dates" for a new round of negotiations during the New York meeting, she added. Talks between Tehran and the P5+1 have been stalled since April.

While Rowhani expressed a desire to sort out the nuclear impasse, he has said Iran will not abandon its "undeniable rights", including enrichment.

Salehi said he understood international concerns, and that Iran was ready to allay them "using every treaty, regulation and mechanism at the international level".

Concretely, he told state news agency IRNA Iran could even accept the so-called "additional protocol" of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Tehran is a signatory, which allows unannounced inspections.

The IAEA wants Iran to grant access to sites, documents and scientists involved in Tehran's alleged efforts to develop atomic weapons, which the agency suspects mostly took place before 2003 but are possibly still ongoing.

Iran says the IAEA's findings are based on faulty intelligence from foreign spy agencies such as the CIA and Israel's Mossad - intelligence it complains it has not even been allowed to see.

In its quarterly report, seen by AFP last week, the IAEA said Iran had installed hundreds more centrifuges since May that could enable it to enrich uranium faster.

That would allow it to obtain the amount of fissile material needed for a nuclear bomb more quickly, if it wished to go down that path.